Kungs

French producer and DJ Kungs makes bright, breezy tropical house tunes filled with acoustic instrumentation, buoyant synth melodies, and yearning vocals. He scored a major worldwide hit in 2016 with his remix of Cookin' on 3 Burners’ “This Girl,” which reappeared on his full-length debut, Layers. He became a mainstay of EDM festivals and continued building on his signature sound with subsequent singles like “Dopamine” and “Never Going Home,” the latter of which hit the Top Five in France and paved the way for Kungs’ sophomore album, 2022′s Club Azur. Following the full-length, Kungs collaborated with Purple Disco Machine and Carlita.
Born Valentin Brunel and raised in Aix-en-Provence, Kungs grew up with a rock & roll-loving father who often ventured into other genres. The young producer absorbed it all, then discovered electronic music on his own in his teen years, preferring house with its upfront vocals and luxurious melodies. He began recording and uploading bootleg remixes and his own productions around 2014. The official remix requests came in 2015 with the producer getting a crack at Axwell & Ingrosso’s “On My Way,” while his collaboration with Mozambo, “To Describe You,” earned a spot on the Hed Kandi: Tropical House compilation that year.
A tour of Europe as opener for David Guetta followed in 2016, along with Kungs’ hit single “This Girl,” a rework of a 2009 song by Australian funk trio Cookin' on 3 Burners, featuring Kylie Auldist, frontwoman of the Bamboos. “This Girl” hit number one in France and Germany, number two in the U.K. and Austria, and number eight in Canada, and entered the Top 30 on the Billboard charts. His debut LP, Layers, arrived late that year and featured Jamie N Commons, Ephemerals, and Luke Pritchard of the Kooks. It hit reached the top 10 in both France and the U.K. “More Less,” a single featuring British singer Olly Murs and Belgian rapper Coely, was released in August 2017. Kungs followed up in mid-2018 with “Be Right Here” featuring GOLDN and Stargate, and “Disco Night” (with Throttle) appeared in October. The instrumental “Paris” surfaced in 2019, and “Dopamine” (featuring JHart) was released in 2020. In March 2022, Kungs released his sophomore full-length, Club Azur. Included on the album was the previously released “Paris,” as well as the Top Five French hit “Never Going Home,” and “People” featuring the Knocks. “Substitution” (with Purple Disco Machine) and “Shadows” (with Carlita) arrived in 2023. ~ David Jeffries & Paul Simpson